Mr. Robertson did not receive reliable information of his arrival in Chitral territory until the 24th of February, when he at once entered into communication with him. On the 27th of February, Mr. Robertson received from Sher Afzul a demand that he should go back to Mastuj at once. Sher Afzul promised to be friends with the Government on the same terms as previous Mehtars of Chitral, that is to say, that he was to receive subsidies from the Government, but that no British officer should reside in the country. But his promise was coupled with the threat that if his terms were not accepted, Umra Khan would at once advance. The two princes had, in fact, made an alliance, the basis of which was really hostility to the British Government. They were to induce or force the British officers from Chitral territory, and after that had been effected, they could then decide who should rule the country, one thing only being certain, that whoever should be the nominal Mehtar, Umra Khan would be the ruler practically. Mr. Robertson replied to Sher Afzul that the Maharajah of Kashmir was the Suzerain of Chitral, and that neither Umra Khan nor any one else could impose a Mehtar on Chitral without the permission of the Government; he added that Sher Afzul was wanting in respect to the Government of India, that he was informing the Government of Sher Afzul's demands, and would communicate their instructions to him, and that if in the meantime he attempted any overt act of hostility, he must take the consequences on his own head. At the end of February, the Chitralis were still holding a position a dozen miles below Chitral, and Umra Khan was rapidly completing his preparations for the defence of Kila Drosh against an attack from the Chitralis, which he believed to be imminent. A few Chitralis of the lower class had gone over to Sher Afzul, but the principal men, though suspected of being partisans of Sher Afzul, did not openly defect. Suddenly, however, they now changed their minds and went over in a body to Sher Afzul. In that versatile and impulsive way so characteristic of them, they turned completely round, and, in place of joining the British and opposing Umra Khan, they now, under the impression that Umra Khan was the stronger, because the nearer power, and that the British were the weaker, because the more distant, joined the Pathan chief, and came surging on in a wave towards the fort of Chitral, which Mr. Robertson, with the escort of 400 men, which he had brought with him, had now occupied. Amir-ul-Mulk had been deposed and was under the custody of the British officers, and Mr. Robertson had formally recognised Shuja-ul-Mulk, an intelligent, trustworthy little boy, nine or ten years old, as provisional Mehtar of Chitral, pending the orders of the Government of India.